Re: Mateo de Acosta

Susana: I am a direct descendent of Don Gaspar Mateo de Acosta, El Maestro de Campo, who from 1686 to 1694 was Gobernador y Capital General que fue de las Provincias de Nueva Andalusia, Nueva Barcelona y San Cristobal de Cumanagotas, which would now correspond to Venezuela's state of Sucre (capital Cumana', the first town founded in the New World). The family was definitely from Spain (Aragon). There is also mention of the same name in records as having a role in the administration of the Canary Islands. I know nothing of who followed Gaspar directly, until my great-great gradnfather Antonio de Acosta, whose son Jose Eusebio de Acosta was an army general roughly in the mid-19th century. He ran for president of Venezuela and lost, and lived in San Mauricio (or a villa called San Mauricio) in Caracas, which later became an embassy. He married Rosa Ramona Benitez de Sarria y Hurtado, the daughter of a colonel, Don Ramon Benitez. Other Acostas were certainly in Cuba, and were described as 'minor nobility.' Am most eager to find out more, regards, Bruce Johnston.